Loaded

Loaded: Status update - ordering pizza

CNET takes a closer look at the Google phone, pizza lovers get to order it without leaving Facebook, and we show you a motion capture technology that does not require a motion sensor suit.

7:44 / 16 October 2008

Transcript

>> Let's have a closer look at the G1. You can now order pizza on Facebook and we checked out some cool motion capture technology. It's Thursday, October 16, I'm Natali Del Conte and it's time to get Loaded.
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>> The much anticipated T-Mobile G1 goes on sale next Tuesday. We showed you the phone when it was first unveiled last month, but our own Bonnie Cha got a little extra one-on-one time with it. Here's what she thought.
>> Now as most of you know, the G1 is the first smartphone to run the Google operating system and will be available from T-Mobile starting October 22. I've been playing around with it for a few days now and there's a lot to like about the device, but there's also some big annoyances. And the screen orientation only switches from portrait to landscape mode when you open the keyboard, so right now it won't switch automatically if you rotate the phone which is kind of disappointing. You can also bring up the full menu key here and you just hold and press whatever icon you want and you can drag it on to the home screen. There is a microSD expansion slot on the left side and a mini USB port on the bottom. Fortunately there's no headphone jack, so you have to use the USB port and an audio adaptor to plug-in earbuds and I'm really annoyed at why HTC decided to do this because I think it's a major design flaw. It also has GPS with Google Maps with a built-in compass on the phone, so you can navigate 360 degrees by moving the phone around. The G1 supports Gmail and other POP3 and IMAP accounts, but it won't offer Microsoft exchange support at launch, so probably not the best device for corporate users. One thing I'm particularly excited about is that innovation at Amazon MP3 Store, so you can buy and download songs directly from the store over a Wi-Fi connection and all songs are DRM-free.
>> Pizza Hut is letting you order delivery through Facebook. The pizza chain added a Facebook app that let's you order pizza, pasta and chicken wings using your mobile device, text messaging or your desktop. This is a great idea considering Facebook's college student demographic. If you want a shot at some free food, Pizza Hut is also randomly awarding $50 gift certificates to users that friend them on Facebook. Check out this laptop from IBM. It's truly for people who are up to no good. It has a security knob, like the one in your high school locker, hidden USB ports to help hide your espionage activities and a built-in paper shredder to do away with whatever incriminating paper work you're dealing with. This machine is only conceptual at this point. IBM has no firm plans to release it just yet, but I would definitely want one. I wonder if it could self-destruct. That would be awesome. MySpace has implemented some upgrades to MySpace Karaoke. The new service includes video recordings so that you can film yourself in standard or high-definition singing along to your favorite tunes. Each song has a video of people performing that song as well as other performances by that same user. The record button also immediately lets users start to record without downloading any additional software or launch any devices. There's also better navigation, improved sharing features and a dedicated upload manager. This is all great because goodness knows we all need more of this in our lives.
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>> Google launched a show on YouTube called PopTub. The show is a mix of segments that range from skits and traditional red carpet interviews to honor in random and funny YouTube bids with their five-minutes of fame. PopTub has been kept under wraps since its launch on YouTube last month to build an audience before the show is distributed on Google Content Network, an ad network that will have hundreds of thousands of websites beyond just YouTube. Google Content Network embeds these videos and Google Gadgets giving viewers a link back to the main site or channel to watch more. The eventual goal is to solve the issues that Google has had with monetizing content on YouTube. Although, I'm not so sure if using the show on YouTube about shows on YouTube will help to accomplish that goal, but we'll see how it unfolds. You may have seen News.com's Kara Tsuboi put on a motion sensor suit in order to play Iron Man in one of her recent reports. Turns out the Spandex may not have been necessary. A company here in New York called Organic Motion has a new motion capture technology that works without any special uniform. Take a look. Organic Motion's offices are full of programmers working on creating the next simple-to-use motion capture technology. Using dozens of cameras, the company hopes to translate natural motion into four-dimensional movement. Users can be anything they want. I got the chance to speak to the company's founder and president and here's what he had to say about the future of this technology.
>> You can just imagine, sort of we are on steroids. The idea that you're not even holding anything and it knows exactly what you're doing with every part of your body. But I think it gets more interesting when you think about public. The idea that you can walk into an arcade and now just step into a pad and become the boxer or become, you know naturally interact with the game. So, all I really have to do is step into this space and when I put up my arms, the computers, sort of measures me in three dimensions exactly what my size are, exactly the way I'm sort of standing here, and boom, I pop right into the character. In fact I can get down, I can do a push-up, I mean, I can even sort of, you know, roll and this is kind of something that traditionally, you know does not work with motion capture because you're occluding the markers. If I had various markers on my chest, I got on the floor and cover them up, and then the traditional systems, you know lose tracking on that. If you break it down into steps we first, we build a 3-D model of the person, so it's almost like a real-time 3-D scanner and then we fit a skeleton to that scanner. So we gain all kinds of information about the person in the space. Not only how they move, but what is their body size, and what is their texture, what do they look like, all that gets collected by the system.
>> Originally I planned the motion capture myself, but I was a total girl and wear a dress and the software need you to be in pants, but instead we enlisted the help of Dan, The Intern whose getting a little carried away.
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>> Dan, it's time to go. Be sure to pack your webcam when you head to the polls that's because PBS wants you to document your experience by posting videos to YouTube. PBS has partnered with Google for its Video Your Vote page. They wanna create the largest archive of voter experience for the web and some of the best videos will used in PBS coverage on Election Day. PBS is hoping to document the entire experience including registration, technology, administration and actual ballot casting. Some voters will even get a flip webcam if they agree to make at least 9 videos. This is a great idea, but you should be a little careful. Not all polling places allow video cameras and Google is not issuing permission slips. You don't have to buy Cisco's expensive video conferencing program if you wanna use it. The company will now rent out rooms in select cities and hotels for business use. These are high-def video conferencing rooms that use Cisco's TelePresence software. The rooms can accommodate up to 18 people for between $300 and $900 per hour. Now I know that sounds expensive for something that you can easily do the get-away, over Skype, but consider that this is meant to replace the business trips. It's for high quality video meetings. If you bought TelePresence for your office, it will cost between $34,000 and $300,000. Cisco will start installing these rental rooms in Santa Clara, Boston, India and London. The software developer that created the popular iBeer application for the iPhone is now suing Coors for reaping their app. iBeer is an application that makes it look like you're charging a brew. The app developer Hottrix designed the $3 program before Coors released a similar app called iPint. Hottrix claims that they tried to reach an agreement with Coors, but never did. Apple has since removed iPint from the US App Store and Hottrix is now suing Coors for 12.5 million after discovering that iPint reportedly have over 6 million downloads. Just goes to show you should never steal beer. Those are all your headlines for today, but before I sign-off I wanna send out a congratulations to Tim on his new baby, Tim Jr. Also happy birthday to Woo Kim [assumed spelling]. That wraps up your week of getting Loaded, but if you've missed any episodes be sure to catch up at loaded.cnettv.com. Have a great weekend. I will see you on Monday. I'm Natali Del Conte with CNET TV and you've just been Loaded.
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